“Christ gave us freedom to be free”

(Galatians 5:1, 13-25 (CEB)

Christ has set us free for freedom.  Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit to the bondage of slavery again.

You were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only don’t let this freedom be an opportunity to indulge your selfish impulses, but serve each other through love.  All the Law has been fulfilled in a single statement, Love your neighbor as yourself.  But if you bite and devour each other, be careful that you don’t get eaten up by each other.

I say be guided by the Spirit, and you won’t carry out your selfish desires.  A person’s selfish desires are set against the Spirit, and the Spirit is set against one’s selfish desires.  They are opposed to each other, so you shouldn’t do whatever you want to do.  But if you are being led by the Spirit, you aren’t under the Law.  The actions that are produced by selfish motives are obvious, since they include: sexual immorality, moral corruption, doing whatever feels good, idolatry, drug use and casting spells, hate, fighting, obsession, losing your temper, competitive opposition, conflict, selfishness, group rivalry, jealousy, drunkenness, partying, and other things like that.  I warn you, as I have already warned you, that those who do these kinds of things won’t inherit God’s kingdom.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  There is no law against things like this.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified self with its passions and its desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let’s follow the Spirit.  Let’s not become arrogant, make each other angry, or be jealous of each other.

            I realize that Independence Day will be observed next weekend, but this scripture text from the book of Galatians with its treatment of freedom seems timely today.  It IS appropriate in this season to talk about freedom.  Now, of course, the Apostle Paul wasn’t talking about July 4^th, 1776.

            But Paul’s discussion about freedom with the people at the church in Galatia way back in the 1^st century can still resonate with us today.  Christ has set us free for freedom. 

African-American enslaved people knew how very wrong they were being treated.  White people had brought them to Christianity, and they began to be reading passages like today’s from Galatians.  They learned that Christ set us free for freedom during those centuries of enslavement.  The song, “Oh Freedom” really captures the spirit of what Paul is talking about in this letter.  (see black 2194) 

            Paul is, of course, referring to being free of laws—those laws that kept folks from being able to welcome everyone into their fellowship.  Those laws and the religious leaders’ reading of them had kept those “outsiders” outside.  The part of chapter 5 that we did not read has to do with the requirement of Jewish males to be circumcised as their rite of passage in order to be part of the religion.  In contrast to this law, Paul is saying, “Anything that prevents people from being part of us is not Christ-like because Christ has set us free for freedom.”

            Now, we know what ties us down and prevents us from being free to love one another.  It is when we place anything before our love of God in Christ, when we put our own selfish desires before loving one another as Christ has loved us. 

We are prevented from being free to love everyone when we decide that what is right in our life together is only what benefits us, when we allow the welfare of the few to override the care for all God’s children.  How do you think the institution of slavery in our nation began in the first place?  It was a group of well-to-do entitled people who ignored their consciences and allowed their selfish, evil instincts to rule the day.  They misused the Bible in order to rationalize their horrible behavior.  They enshrined their right to own slaves into law.

One of our church family members witnessed exactly what happens when selfish people twist the law and our constitution into a hate-filled entitlement.  The natural logical consequence of this is thinking that somehow being white makes people superior.  There were 4 white guys standing above the route 8 freeway holding a sign that said, “Make America White Again.”  Here we are ready to celebrate America next weekend, and we have to see this kind of garbage.  We can only imagine who would do such a thing.   

            …But Jesus freed us from laws that are made to hurt people.  Paul made a list of resultant behavior that comes from a self-centered approach in organizing human life together.  This self-centeredness is never good for children, women, the poor, the elderly, people of color or people with gender differences and preferences.  You heard the list, but here it is again: moral corruption, idolatry, fighting, obsession, losing your temper, competitive opposition, conflict, selfishness, group rivalry, jealousy, and the like.  These things, as Paul says, are not of the Spirit.  They do not serve humanity.  Rather, they are destructive to our lives together. 

            …But here are the things that come from living as though we are bound to  one another, or, better put, we are all part of the human web that holds us together, and the whole law is summed up in this single statement: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  Listen again to these fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Those who truly belong to Christ have these as their guidelines—always. 

            You know, back in the ‘60’s we young people were all about peace and love.  …Or so we said.  What happened to our hopes and dreams for humanity?  Did we just grow up and get completely self-involved and greedy?

            You know, I look at that list of traits that Paul makes (the good ones), and I love it.  But it’s become kind of cliché-ish, the kind of stuff that we shouted when we thought we didn’t have anything to lose.  You may recall Janis Joplin’s words: “Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose.”  We say peace and love and kindness and goodness in church, but do we really mean it?  Maybe we let our preacher say it, and we nod knowingly while thinking, “That’s not gonna happen.” The thing is, it does seem impossible.  Peace and love and joy, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness…. 

It’s easier to be sarcastic and sardonic (and I, personally, love to be sarcastic and edgy).  It’s easier than dealing with our human need for love and affection, for attention and authenticity, for gentleness and vulnerability. 

But when we can be with each other in a real way, we have freed ourselves from beating each other up over the letter of the law or demanding that everyone comply with our interpretation of what God wants and who Jesus is.  When we can sit together sharing who we really are and what our lives are like, it is a beautiful thing.  It brings people together.  Then we are free from keeping our masks in place, lest someone see the real me or you.  We are free of thinking, thinking, thinking what the law is and how we have to insist that “the other” must be won over to our side.  Christ has set us free for freedom.

Christ has set us free for joy, for love, for peace, for contentment; Christ has set us free to trust that we can be ourselves (the people God has created us to be) and still be good people AND be assured that we are loved and cherished by God and Christ.  We are set free from the worries about how we are seen and perceived. 

It is being hung up on that other list, the one that causes us to live out of selfish motives, that gets us in trouble and is at the root of all those unpleasant behaviors.  But, of course, we all will fall into those traps sometimes.  We’re human, after all. 

..I read what I’m going to share with you in a daily meditation from Father Richard Rohr.  He includes in his writing from Thursday these words from the Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis:

“I know this to be true: The world doesn’t get great unless we ALL get better.  If there is such a thing as salvation, then we are not saved until everyone is saved, our dignity and liberation are bound together.  We must care for ourselves and the village around us.  If we don’t, the village’s problems become our problems, and together our children will continue to hide from bullets in their classrooms.  Our elders’ safety nets will be threatened.  Our young adults will face mounting debt and earn less than their parents.  Fear, racism, bigotry—these problems belong to all of us, and they will get better as we all get better.”  She concludes with this: “You and I are the ones we’ve been waiting for to create better lives for ourselves and our communities and to build a better world—together.  All we need is the courage to imagine, and the will to make it be so.  All of us must face and embrace the urgent need for deep social change—change that begins within, then spreads like ripples on a pond, and finally becomes a tsunami of love-inspired change.” This, for us, is where the love of God in Christ comes in.  We are loved and forgiven, freed to be loving and kind and compassionate.  Freed for freedom, folks.  Praise Christ!